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Urban Fabric: Greige

22 Apr 2017 - 23 Apr 2017

Presented in Stills’ lower ground level, Urban Fabric: Greige is an installation of photographs of Melbourne’s mid-twentieth century curtain wall facades in which the latent image of Harris Tweed was exposed.

In photographs of Melbourne’s mid-twentieth century architecture the latent image of Harris Tweed was exposed, calling to mind the nineteenth century German architect and champion of the crafts, Gottfried Semper’s claim that walls were once originally woven. Urban Fabric: Greige celebrates the previously unforeseen legacy of the Hebridean weave in the globalised phenomenon of the curtain wall façade and suggests that there is much to be learned from living heritages and their associated craft practices, as it brings into focus the significance of the surface in our understanding and experience of place. The project recalls the surveys of industrial architecture by Bernd and Hilla Becher. Urban Fabric: Greige contributes to this lineage, but instead focuses on the mid-twentieth century curtain wall façade, and reveals in its modernist surfaces a time-honoured and culturally embedded craft.

The installation will feature an artist’s talk by Peta Carlin, ‘The Lure of the Image’ commencing at 12.30pm, followed by a performance of a waulking by Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh, with graphics by Spike Hibberd on Saturday 22 April.